Precision agriculture equipment, such as yield monitors, have been available since the 1990s, yet farmer adoption of the technology has been slow, said a congressional report on Thursday that listed a half-dozen barriers beyond high acquisition costs.
Barriers range from difficulty in analyzing the reams of data generated by the devices to poor internet service and incompatibility of equipment.
Usage of precision agriculture practices, such as GPS guidance, is highest among farmers in the leading corn wheat, soybean, and hog states, topping 50 percent, according to USDA’s farm computer report. The U.S. usage average was 27 percent in 2023, up from 25 percent in 2021.
“Extension officials and other stakeholders told us they have observed younger farmers adopting precision agriculture technologies more often and more quickly than their older counterparts,” said the General Accountability Office in its report on benefits and challenges of precision agriculture.
“Technologies that are relatively easy to use are, in general, adopted more quickly and widely than those that are more complex or require a large investment of farmers’ time and resources,” according to the report. “Stakeholders also indicated that data-intensive technologies that require farmers to collect, collate, analyze, and respond to data have a higher barrier to entry and are less widely adopted.” Among corn and soybean farmers, use of auto-steer for tractors and combines was twice as common as their use of soil maps or variable rate application of fertilizer and seeds.
With its use of sensor and analysis tools, precision agriculture offers the opportunity to increase yields while using herbicide, fuel, fertilizer, and water more efficiently, with the added benefit of reduced farm runoff. The USDA and the National Science Foundation provided almost $200 million for precision agriculture research in the five years ending in 2021.
The price tag for precision agriculture equipment quickly runs into the thousands of dollars. Additionally, some tools have annual user fees, such as subscriptions to cloud-based farm management systems, said the GAO. Farmers and their employees may need additional training to install, operate, and maintain the equipment and software.
“Farmers can face challenges with analysis and interpretation of farm-generated data and need assistance translating data into actionable information,” said the GAO, so they may need additional training. “Farmers must analyze increasingly larger quantities of data generated by precision agriculture technologies to obtain insights for informed decision-making. However, there are relatively few software programs that translate data into actionable decisions, though they have been increasing in recent years.”
There are related questions such as timely access to the data and whether it is accurate and comprehensive. “A lack of standardization among different devices and platforms can hamper interoperability between different precision agriculture technologies,” said the GAO. “A reliable broadband connection to the internet is an enabling technology of precision agriculture that can further maximize efficiencies but it is not widely available across rural America.”
Farm groups and their members are concerned about the confidentiality of the data generated through precision agriculture. “Some farmers are concerned about losing ownership or control of their farm data if they share that data with others,” said the GAO. Their reasons range from a desire to maintain a competitive advantage over their neighbors to fear of additional scrutiny by regulators.
The GAO discussed seven policy options to encourage greater use of precision agriculture, to encourage further innovation in the field, and how to manage the data generated by the technology. The agency left it to policymakers to decide what steps to take, including sticking to the status quo.
The GAO report is available here.